White mayor points at black volunteer in a photo, media reports it as a ‘gang sign’

The mayor had  taken a photo before the election canvassing with an African American volunteer, in which the two are pointing at one another.

The volunteer is a former criminal, who states in a promotional video filmed the same day, “I made some mistakes in life. I can’t vote. I’m not ashamed to say that. But I’m working on fixing that right now so I can be able to vote for my next president.”

Local TV station KSTP released a panicked report on the incident, citing “law enforcement sources” who were “fuming” over the photograph—despite the fact that Minneapolis chief of police Janee Harteau was also at the scene of the picture-taking, and a video of the scene shows the mayor and the man innocently trying to decide how to pose.

“The fact that they’re flashing gang signs back and forth at each other, showing solidarity with the gangs, she’s legitimizing what they’re doing,” said one Minnesota police officer with an apparently active imagination.

“She’s legitimizing these people that are killing our children in Minneapolis,” he told the station.

“Is she gonna support gangs in the city or cops?” the president of the Minneapolis Police Federation wondered.

#Pointergate blew up on Twitter throughout the day, with floods of sarcastic pictures of other people flashing the “gang sign”:

The woman who took the photo responded like this:

Watch the news segment below:

h/t Daily Kos